Reuven Shiloah ( he, ראובן שילוח; December 1909 – 1959) was the first Director of the Mossad from 1949 to 1953.

Biography

Reuven Zaslani (later Shiloah) was born in Ottoman-ruled

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. His father was a rabbi. Shiloah married Betty Borden of New York in 1936. Shiloah's involvement in political and defense matters commenced before the establishment of the State of Israel. He was a close friend of

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the na ...

. Before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War Shiloah obtained the invasion plans of the Arab League, and he began building relationships with other intelligence agencies, particularly in the West. At the urging of Shiloah, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion created the "Central Institute for Coordination" (Mossad) in December 1949 and appointed Shiloah as its first Director. However, it was not until April 1, 1951 that the Mossad became operational under Shiloah because bureaucratic fighting had delayed Ben-Gurion's initial order. After his tenure at the Mossad Shiloah worked in the

Israeli Embassy This is a list of diplomatic missions of Israel, excluding honorary consulates. As of November 2021, there are 82 resident embassies, including a Taiwan office, and 22 consulate-generals and two representative missions in the 164 states that reco ...

in Washington DC and continued serving as an advisor.

Biography

References

Further reading